Depictions and predictions of civilisational collapse, looming planetary limits and existential threats reverberate through contemporary culture.
While the cause and appropriate response to these apocalyptic visions may be a point of debate across the political spectrum, a shared sense of a dystopian future has widespread appeal. As “the end of the world” flashes across our screens, what can we learn about our political imagination by examining these narratives?
Picturing the End presents works from significant artists locally, across Australia and abroad—alongside a curated cinema program—to reflect on our enduring fascination with humanity’s downfall.
Introduction by curator Llewellyn Millhouse
Just like myths of creation, visions of “The End” help us make sense of the world. Looking into our future, we hypothesise threats to our culture and community as a warning to our contemporaries. While stories of the apocalypse may be as old as time, they do feel particularly prescient in 2024. A recent global pandemic, the spectre of climate change, an uptick in imperialist warfare and a shift in the global power dynamic reverberate through popular culture, stirring our public anxieties.
We may wish to respond to the threat of the future by returning to the safety of the past. Closing the borders and battening down the hatches, many of us long to return to a simpler time; a time of monoculturalism, “village” communities, craft economies and patriarchal family values. Regressing to an idealised past may appear more and more attractive, yet it does little to sway the trajectory of global politics, global economies and our global environment.
Rather than retreat to the past, the artists in Picturing the End meet with narratives of decline and doom head-on. Reflecting on, subverting and remixing how we collectively imagine “The End”, these artworks compel us to dwell on the difficult and ominous without the hyperbole and righteousness of doom and gloom. In contemplating images of “The End”, we are given the opportunity to reinvest our energy and attention in the challenges of a shared future, rebuilding trust and solidarity in the public good.
Download exhibition guide
Banner image: Micahel Cook, from the 'Invasion' series, 2027. Courtesy of the artist.
